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**FEBRUARY 10, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

Another Trump Holdover Biden Needs to Fire ASAP: Mark Brown

****

Mark Brown has headed the student loan program at the Department of
Education under Betsy DeVos. He was responsible for the outrageous caper
in which the department seized $2.2 billion in tax refunds owed to a
million student debtors, in direct violation of the CARES Act. On his
watch, DOE tolerated garnishment of wages of student borrowers, also
expressly barred by the CARES Act.

A federal judge held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt for
allowing both practices, despite a court order to cease and desist. As
the official in charge, Brown said the agency took "full responsibility"
for the issue.

"One of the many things Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has charged me
with is delivering exceptional customer service to our more than 42
million federal student-loan borrowers," Brown said in a DOE video
. "I'm here today to discuss an instance
in which we did not meet our own standards."

The Washington Post recently reported that under Brown and DeVos, the
Education Department is disproportionately auditing

financial aid applications of Black and Latino students, a surge that
began after DeVos took office. Brown has functioned as DeVos's DeVos.

Soon, President Biden will decide how much student debt relief to
provide, and how to restructure the program to make it less punitive. He
will need someone supportive of his reform agenda. That's not Mark
Brown.

Granted, there are several other Trump holdovers in the new
administration's early-replacement roster. Brown should be moved up on
the list.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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